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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24866275">Echoes in the Sand</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crossovers_and_Randomness/pseuds/Crossovers_and_Randomness'>Crossovers_and_Randomness</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Beyond the Universe [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Doctor Who (2005), Star Wars Sequel Trilogy</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Desert, Gen, Masks, Multiverse, Mystery, Science Fiction, breathing masks, old ruins, poisoned air, some small graphic descriptions</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-07-31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-04 09:09:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>18,028</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24866275</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Crossovers_and_Randomness/pseuds/Crossovers_and_Randomness</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>When the TARDIS dies and crashes, the Doctor and Rey find themselves stuck on an inhospitable desert planet. But the planet holds an unexpected secret, and its history could hold the key to restoring even more than the TARDIS.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Beyond the Universe [8]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1734793</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Prologue</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>I live! Eeeee I'm super excited about this story. Be prepared for surprises. :D</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>An earthen ball ringed with white, the desert planet spread out below the TARDIS.</p><p>Rey stood at the edge, doors thrown open—and looked disappointed.</p><p>BB8 bumped against her ankles with a curious beep and tilted his head over the edge. She frowned slightly. The last place she wanted to visit was another desert planet—another Jakku. Unless absolutely had to.</p><p>And the TARDIS seemed fairly certain that they did. At least, that’s what the Doctor had said.</p><p>She stepped away from the door and the little droid followed, seeming glad to get away from the dizzying height. “Why <em>did</em> she take us here?”</p><p>“No idea. But she seemed <em>very </em>insistent about it, and it’s usually best not to argue.” He leaned against the console, peering past her at the swift-approaching brown. At the speed the ship was going, they would enter the atmosphere any minute now. “Bit boring if you ask me. But you know, sometimes—”</p><p>The console whined, and the Doctor whirled around, hands flying over buttons and levers. That didn’t sound normal. In fact, it almost sounded like—</p><p>An alarm blared through the room and Rey dashed forward. The floor tilted and she nearly slammed into the edge of the console, grabbing for the nearest lever she could find. She thought she knew how to help the Doctor fly this thing. At least she could try.</p><p>“We’ve got to steady her!” she shouted over the alarm, edging around the console as the floor tilted again. The lights flickered and the core shifted from its normal blue to a sickly green. On the viewscreen, the planet rushed closer and closer it was a brown square, as if the screen had glitched. Maybe it had. The core let out another whine, and this time it sounded almost pained.</p><p>It flickered from green to grey—and then nothing.</p><p>The lights all went out at once, leaving them in a sudden shadow so deep that for a moment, Rey couldn’t even find the edge of the console to grab onto. In the sudden silence, the Doctor’s frustrated rambling echoed through the cavernous space, but she tuned it out. They had to get the ship stabilized. Steering. She needed to find the steering—there. Her hand closed around a lever as her eyes adjusted to the darkness.</p><p>Nothing happened. The steering didn’t respond. The lever flipped back and forth as if she were a child playing at flying. </p><p>“No—nonono—” The Doctor gripped the console and tipped his head back to stare at the dead core. “Come on—”</p><p>They slammed into the atmosphere and the ship jerked sideways. She tumbled backward and slammed into a wall before she could even cry out. She blinked, trying to force her eyes to focus. Something sharp and cold jabbed into her side. The far wall hovered below her, nearly hidden in shadows, tilted oddly.</p><p>And they were falling.</p><p>She knew it as soon as her head cleared. They were falling fast enough that she had somehow ended up pressed against the ceiling—or rather, the wall, which had somehow become the ceiling. She tried to flail, but the force of the downward rush nearly stole her breath.</p><p>An eerie silence echoed through the TARDIS as they plummeted toward the planet’s surface.  </p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>There may come a day when I can pass by putting an author's note at the beginning of a chapter, even if I don't have anything to say, but it...is not...wait wrong fandom</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They crashed hard, throwing the passengers and some of the contents of the ship against the far wall.</p><p>Rey’s head had hardly stopped spinning before the Doctor was up and bounding to the doors, which tilted dizzily. She pushed herself to her feet, rubbing her temple where she’d slammed into something hard. She thought she felt a smear of blood. Pain throbbed through her head, and she couldn’t quite draw a full breath.</p><p>BB8 let out a weak beep. He lay wedged beneath the console, his head tilted sideways.</p><p>He’d get himself out. She needed to get the ground under her feet so she could remember which way was up.</p><p>Through the doors, the horizon line seemed to waver at an odd angle. She hauled herself up along the handrail, pausing at the doors to close her eyes against the blinding sameness of the sand and slate-grey sky.</p><p>BB8 flew past her with a screech and landed in the sand with a <em>puff. </em></p><p>She nearly fell over.</p><p>The TARDIS had burrowed a hole in the sand with the force of the crash, the top tilted downward and half-buried. The bottom corner poked into the sky, sharply blue against the dull landscape. She balanced in what had been the top corner of the doorframe, but was now the lowest point, a few feet above the ground. Doctor stood in the sand, shading his eyes and staring out at the horizon with an odd frown. He turned and dashed back, holding out a hand to help her down.</p><p>She hesitated, half tempted to insist she could jump to the sand on her own, but every breath hurt and she was pretty sure the tumble across the console room had bruised something in her ribs.</p><p>She took his hand.</p><p>He scrambled up the side of the TARDIS, got one foot in the doorway, and slipped an arm around her waist. He tried to haul her out and she ended up face-forward in the sand, coughing and choking. She shook her head, swiped the sand from her face, and huffed. “That wasn’t much help—” She choked again, her lungs burning with every word. The crash must have really knocked the wind out of her. She closed her eyes and tried to suck in a deep breath.</p><p>It didn’t really work and still left her panting, but she managed to push herself up. The Doctor dropped to a crouch, holding out a hand to help her. Again.</p><p>“I’m fine,” she snapped as she forced herself to her feet.</p><p>He kept frowning at her.</p><p>“I’m <em>fine.</em> Stop looking at me like that!”</p><p>BB8 let out a disgruntled beep and tilted his head to the side. She turned to him with a huff. “Sorry—” She couldn’t quite force the word out. She put a hand over her mouth. Why did she feel like she was breathing smoke? “Doctor—the air—”</p><p>“The air!” His eyes widened, and his hand went to his hair. “That’s it! I knew something was weird here! The…” He frowned, probably doing calculations in his head. “The molecular structure is off, not quite right for breathing. Guessing it’s not right for ships either, could be why we crashed. Wait—Rey—” His eyes widened and then he was dashing forward, arms around her, and scooping her up before she could even give a protesting squeak, dashing for the TARDIS. “I can filter the air through my lungs but you can’t. We’ve got to get out of here, you’re not going to survive—”</p><p>His words hardly rose over the throbbing in her head. His coat smeared out behind them like a brushstroke, grey sky and brown sand blurring together, as if was staring through a faulty pair of binoculars. And then everything flashed black for a moment, and the Doctor had landed to a crouch in the TARDIS, setting her down gently on the edge of the console, her feet dangling.</p><p>She gasped in a deep breath. Clean air filtered into her lungs. The colors of the console seemed to brighten. Everything tilted to the side, and the room was eerily still, like some kind of ruined ship.</p><p>The Doctor dashed around the console. “Come on, come on…” He grabbed the viewscreen with both hands and jerked it backward, then turned away as if he didn’t want to acknowledge what he saw. He bounded back around the console and she squeezed her eyes shut against the constant movement, too fast and too loud for her pounding headache. She sucked in a deep breath, trying to find the clean air of a moment before.</p><p>“—filters offline!” The almost-shout broke through the haze and she started. “We’ve got to get them back online or the whole ship’s going to fill up with poisoned air. BB8, find a filtration mask for—BB8?”</p><p>She glanced around. She didn’t see the little round form anywhere and realized suddenly that he probably hadn’t been able to jump back into the TARDIS. She dropped off the edge of the console and dashed back to the door. There he was, sitting rather sadly in the sand, his head tilted downward.</p><p>“BB8!” she shouted.</p><p>He didn’t respond.</p><p>“BB8?”</p><p>Before she could even think, she was vaulting out of the doors and running toward the little droid. She dropped to a crouch before him. “BB8? What’s wrong?”</p><p>No response.</p><p>Almost as if something had turned the droid off.</p><p><em>Not right for ships, either…</em>had the air somehow damaged the droid’s systems, too?</p><p>The gash on her head throbbed and she tried to stand. She needed to get back in the TARDIS, now. She should’ve thought before she went jumping back out. She rested a hand on the droid’s still form and pushed herself to her feet. The TARDIS was a blur of blue ahead of her. Her lungs burned, and she tried to gasp in a breath.</p><p>A figure loomed up before her, a figure of sand and coal, its breathing raspy and hard. She stumbled backward and fumbled for her staff—lightsaber—something—the figure seemed to blur and then it was inches away, reaching a hand forward.</p><p>She heard a shout. Black and red exploded in her head, and she felt herself crumple.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Eeee this chapter. Just...meeting my OC, and...everything *squeaks excitedly*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A face hovered over.</p><p>It wasn’t the Doctor’s.</p><p>She blinked, trying to force her vision to focus. Bright blue eyes stared out of a craggy, wrinkled face, white hair fuzzing around it, haloed by the setting sun. The old man’s lips moved as if he were speaking. She frowned. Had she seen him before? She was breathing. She drew in a deep breath, and clean air filtered into her lungs. How was she breathing?</p><p>The voice came into focus as the buzz in her head began to fade.</p><p>“…hear me, girl?”</p><p>She nodded and raised a hand to her face. Her fingers brushed over something that felt like metal—rusty metal. As she traced it, she realized it covered her mouth and nose. Some kind of air filtration device? It felt rudimentary. A strap pressed into the back of her head, and she realized slowly that she was laying on something that wasn’t sand.</p><p>No, not something. Somebody.</p><p>She tilted her head back.</p><p>The Doctor’s face edged into her vision.</p><p>Wait—she was laying in the Doctor’s lap, his hand resting gently on her arm.</p><p>Okay.</p><p>She shook off his hand and pushed herself up, scooting off his lap and onto the sand beside him, and fixing her gaze on the man who crouched opposite her.</p><p>He wore ragged clothes, faded to the color of the sand, and his face was lined and tanned from years in the sun. A rough scarf looped around his neck, fallen from where she guessed it usually shielded his face from blowing sand. One leg of his pants ended in a few thick bars of metal, welded together in a functional prosthetic.</p><p>The Doctor didn’t seem too concerned, so she assumed the man wasn’t going to hurt her. But her hand went to her lightsaber all the same.</p><p>“Who are you?” she blurted.</p><p>He bowed his head slightly, his sharp blue eyes hooded. “Ah—I’m no one. Just a scavenger.” His gaze seemed misty, as if he stared into the past.</p><p>
  <em>No one. </em>
</p><p>
  <em>Just a scavenger. </em>
</p><p>“I’m breathing.” The words were half-question, half-observation.</p><p>He raised an eyebrow. “I should certainly hope so.”</p><p>“Because he <em>gave </em>you his <em>mask!” </em>the Doctor blurted from behind her. She turned, eyes widening. Her hand went to her face again, feeling the hard metal. She’d thought the Doctor had dragged something out of the depths of the TARDIS! She turned to stare at the man, who still crouched silently in the sand.</p><p>Scavengers weren’t usually that nice. She would know.</p><p>“You—” The word hardly left the thick metal mask.</p><p>“Ah—well.” He cleared his throat and turned away. A bit of metal poked out of the scarf and it seemed to be embedded in his skin, bobbing a bit as he breathed. His voice rasped a bit. “I’ve got a bit of a backup. Last me ‘til I get home. Couldn’t let a pretty young thing like you die in the desert, could I?” One corner of his mouth turned up in a smile. “And it’s not often we get offworlders here, especially with ships like that.” He glanced behind her, and she followed his gaze to where the TARDIS still lay half-buried in the sand, base sticking up. “Never seen the like.” He gave them a keen glance, almost suspicious. “Seems you’re either rather important or a bit eccentric.”</p><p>“Ah—can we say both?” The Doctor grinned slightly. “I’ve been told I’m a bit on the eccentric side, at least to humans, and important—wouldn’t you say that’s a matter of perspective?”</p><p>“He’s important.” The words just came out, but she meant them. If anyone was important, it was the Doctor. He’d saved thousands, maybe millions of lives in all his exploits around the universe. Most of the time, she’d just watched.</p><p>“Hm.” This time his glance held no suspicion, but he seemed to see through her all the same. He looked away and stood, shifting his weight off his metal leg. One hand went to his scarf, tugging it away from his throat to revel a small metal box that almost seemed soldered into his weathered skin. His breath rasped. “Ah—well. You should go while you still can. Longer that ship sits here, less chance of getting it started up again. Air here messes with the systems.”</p><p>“Ah—about that.” The Doctor jumped up and Rey followed, her hand going to her filtration mask again just to make sure it didn’t slip off. “Where exactly is—here?”</p><p>His breath rasped again, and he pulled the scarf back over the metal. He cleared his throat, and when he spoke, his voice was flat, tinged with bitterness.</p><p>“Welcome to Jakku,” he said.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Uggggh. I stared and stared at this chapter and it's still not my best writing. Frustrated author sigh.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>A moment passed.</p><p>
  <em>Jakku. </em>
</p><p>No, that couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be <em>Jakku </em>Jakku, like her home planet. They hadn’t crossed universes. The Doctor would’ve known, the TARDIS would’ve known, maybe even BB8 would’ve known.</p><p>But—</p><p>The waves of sand, the endless silent nothing, the fact that they’d just met a scavenger. It all seemed so familiar. If she’d still been in her own universe, she would’ve said that this place couldn’t be anything but Jakku.</p><p>The old man drew in another rasping breath, and the way he seemed to struggle to get the air in set off alarms in Rey’s head. She rushed forward as he went to his knees, one hand clutching at the scarf, pulling it away, fingers clutching at the metal box where his windpipe should’ve been. She dropped to a crouch and got an arm around him, tugging him to his feet.</p><p>“We’ve got to get him back to the TARDIS—”</p><p>The Doctor took too strides and got an arm around the man’s other side before she even finished talking. His breaths rattled now and he stumbled, closing his eyes, face grower paler and paler. His weight landed hard on the metal leg.</p><p>Rey grunted as his full weight fell on her. The Doctor shifted, took the old man’s weight, and then just hefted him up and away from Rey, taking off toward the TARDIS. Rey just stood there helplessly for a moment before she took off after him.</p><p>The Doctor vaulted in through the tilted doors. Rey scrambled in after him and ran to his side.</p><p>He settled the old man into the nearest chair and took off down a hallway, which seemed to straighten and flatten as it went farther from the console room, separate from the tilt of the doors. Strange. She’d thought the whole inside was tied to the outside the way the console was…</p><p>She just stood there beside the man for a moment, one hand on the railing to keep herself from sliding sideways.</p><p>The metal box in his neck rasped with every shallow breath, and his face was a sickly pale shade, especially in the strange blue-green light of the dead TARDIS console.</p><p>Carefully, she reached for her breathing mask, searching around behind her head to unhook it. She found the metal clasp, snapped it open, and shifted it off her face. She wasn’t sure how much of the bad air had wafted into the TARDIS, but the Doctor had said the filters were offline—and the door was currently dangling open. So she kept her breaths shallow.</p><p>The mask was a thick metal thing, almost mechanical, if an air filtration mask could be purely mechanical. Whoever had made it had done an admirable job of piecing together what looked like junk parts into something so useful.</p><p>She settled it over his mouth and nose and felt his neck for a pulse.</p><p>He sucked in a sharp breath just as the Doctor came dashing out. He nearly pushed her aside, snatched the metal mask from the man’s face, and deposited a sleek white one in its place. Rey just stood there for a moment, holding the old mask, frowning with a trickle of annoyance.</p><p>The Doctor turned and dashed past her to the console.</p><p>“Alright I’ve reverse-engineered that one so it’s using minimum power but it’ll only be good for so long if the air keeps seeping in here. We need to get you both out of here and get some proper medical care for this man—” He flipped a lever, but nothing happened. No flicker of light touched the center column, and the room sat eerily still.</p><p>The Doctor tilted his head back to stare at the core.</p><p>For a long, silent moment, the room had the stillness of an old ruin, every breath and movement echoing.</p><p>“Come on…come on…” The Doctor clenched the edge of the console, frowning hard at the core as if he were trying to encourage it with his mind.</p><p>Rey slipped the old mask on and tightened it so it stayed firmly in place over her mouth and nose. Her voice had an odd tone as she spoke, muffled and modulated by the metal workings. “Doctor.”</p><p>He started and whipped toward her. “What!”</p><p>She started up the floor to the doors. “I’m going to find someone who can tell us what’s going on here.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>...I have no notes. But I have to put a note at the beginning like I have for all my other chapters. So here, have a note. xD</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Sand.</p><p>So much sand.</p><p>They had left the old man lying in the TARDIS, sedated so he couldn’t wake up and damage his filter, hefted poor shut-down BB8 back through the doors, and set off across the sand in search of civilization, or some semblance of it. The desert wind whipped up the sand, stinging her eyes, and the heavy metal mask was starting to leave a burning rash where it rested against her cheeks. She tugged at it again. How did the old man wear this constantly?</p><p>Well, at least she could breathe.</p><p>The sand stretched out to the horizon in rolling hills all around them, making them feel terribly small amid the blank brown nothingness. This had been considerably less boring when she’d had her speeder and could take miles in an hour, back on the real Jakku.</p><p>The real Jakku. No, that wasn’t right.</p><p>Had someone just happened to name a desert planet Jakku in this universe? What else could’ve happened? She’d heard theories of the nature of alternate universes, but were things really so awfully similar when one crossed the walls of the universe?</p><p>It looked so much like her home.  </p><p>Well…Jakku had never really been home.</p><p>She shoved her hands in the pockets of the jacket the Doctor had called a ‘hoodie’ as she trudged along through the sand. The sunlight was thin and weak, barely providing enough heat to cut through the grey clouds that covered the sky. The sun had always been bright and burning on Jakku.</p><p>“How’s it possible, then?” Neither of them had spoken in a while, and her voice barely carried through the eddying wind, which seemed to speak of an approaching storm. “It can’t really be Jakku.”</p><p>“Got to be parallel.” He had his hands stuffed in his pockets too, and his voice was absent, as if lost in thought. “Happens sometimes, you know. The parallel thing. Not everything’s parallel but some things are. Like Earth, or…you know, I met an alternate of somebody once…it was <em>weird, </em>seeing two of the same person talking to each other.” He shook his head as if to clear it of the potential ramble. “It’s like a mirror. The same, but different.” </p><p>“Pretty much the same as far as I can see,” she muttered, peering at the horizon. Wait—she thought she saw something. Squinting against the strange brightness of the clouds, she could make out a tiny black dot. “Doctor—” She couldn’t keep the excitement out of her voice.</p><p>It seemed he’d already seen it.</p><p>“Oh <em>yes!</em>” he blurted, and then they were running.</p><p>The horizon was a long way away.</p><p>She should’ve known that, really. She’d grown up here after all, or, well, a place that looked a lot like here. It was too easy to underestimate how long it took to get across the sand. They were both getting a little breathless after a few minutes of running, and the little dot had hardly grown any larger.</p><p>Well, Rey was a little breathless. The Doctor looked like he was about the collapse.</p><p>She rushed to his side. “Doctor?” He bent over, hands on his knees, gasping a little, and his face had turned sickly pale. “Doctor? Are you.…”</p><p>He managed to hold up a hand. “I’m fine…” Another gasping breath. “Just can’t do the…breathing thing…while running.” He eased himself up, shook himself, and cocked a grin at her. “Let’s walk for a bit, shall we?”</p><p>She nodded quickly, eyes wide. She didn’t want him doing that again.</p><p>So they walked.</p><p>And walked.</p><p>And kept walking.</p><p>Slowly, slowly, the dot on the horizon grew larger and darker until it separated into multiple dots, which then became a cluster of small buildings. Very, very small buildings, but some semblance of civilization nonetheless. Rey fought the urge to run again, just to get out of the monotony of the sand. The same view she’d looked at every day, every hour of her life, and now she was here with the Doctor. Who she was supposed to be seeing new things with, not walking across sand planets.</p><p>Oh, she wasn’t angry at him. Not really. Mostly the TARDIS for insisting on landing them here.</p><p>A large, low building became clearer as they grew closer, built of metal and old scraps. She closed her fingers around the lightsaber at her side. Did the same kind of vagabonds tend to live here as they did on Jakku? She gripped the metal hilt loosely, ready to draw.</p><p>The town spread out across the desert, all rusty metal and scraps and half-decayed buildings. Beneath the cloudy sky, it was silent—eerily silent, as if everyone who lived there had suddenly stopped and held their breath.</p><p>Or did anyone live there?</p><p>Rey stopped just a few feet away from the first building, glancing around. This town was a ruin, a ghost town. That much was obvious. She glanced at the Doctor, who had his hands in his pockets, one eyebrow raised.</p><p>“Looks abandoned,” he said.</p><p>She nodded. “It does.”</p><p>He grinned. “Well, come on then! Everybody knows ruins are the best place to find history.”</p><p>She blinked. It was just a ruin. Not that interesting. Well, maybe a bit interesting—at least there might be information stored here.</p><p>She’d hardly taken a step when she tripped over the body.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>The beginning of this chapter is basically the reason why I put the "some small graphic descriptions" tag. Why do I enjoy writing these twisted descriptions so much? What does this say about me as a person??</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>She hardly recognized it as human at first. Empty eyeholes stared out of a shriveled face, skin stretched across bones like darkened leather, mummified by years of blowing sand. She stumbled a half-step backward, turning away and closing her eyes, taking a few deep breaths to steady her stomach.</p><p>When she turned back, the Doctor was crouched by the form.</p><p>She glanced away again.</p><p>Who had this person been? And how had they died?</p><p>Part of her didn’t want to think about the fact that the shriveled skeletal form had once been a human, but part of her found it oddly comforting.  </p><p>The Doctor frowned, that frown he got when he was running through some problem in his head. How could he examine the body so clinically? She’d seen dead bodies before, but she never liked it.</p><p>“Can’t glean a cause of death here, but it was obviously quite a while ago.” He leaned back, balancing on his heels, and swept his sonic across the form. “Ooh, look at that, some kind of pacemaker. We may have just found our cause of death—wait—no—that’s not a pacemaker, that’s a full bionic <em>heart</em>!” His hand hovered over the skeleton’s chest. “This is super advanced tech, we’re talking fifty-third century here. Which <em>really </em>doesn’t make sense, considering…” He glanced up and his eyes flitted to Rey’s mask. She raised a hand almost unconsciously to reposition it. “That mask, the old scavenger’s leg, it’s all so rudimentary…”</p><p>Rey couldn’t look away from the corpse. “We should give him a proper burial.” The words came out more abrupt than she intended, but she meant them will all her heart. Even on Jakku, people buried their own and didn’t leave them to rot in the desert.</p><p>The Doctor froze, mouth slightly open, sonic still pointed at the corpse’s chest. For a moment he just stared at her, as if she’d interrupted his string of deductions. Finally he stood, hand going to his side, and took a step back.</p><p>“You’re right,” he said. “We should.”</p><p>Rey stepped past him and the body and started into the ruined town. “I’ll find us a shovel.” She didn’t look back, but she knew he followed.</p><p>The buildings were dark hills of shadow in the dusk, and everything was silent—the silence of ruins that seems a sound of its own, dead and dusty and ringing with memories. As they walked through what had once been streets, something niggled at the back of her mind. This place seemed strangely familiar.</p><p>The Doctor stuffed his hands in his pockets and she did the same, fingers beginning to ache with cold as the night came on. Every breath echoed, and she was almost afraid to break the silence. Ruins were ruins and she’d spent enough time in them that she’d learned to tune out the echoes of the past, but something about this place unsettled her.</p><p>She tried to shove the feeling away and scanned the buildings around them for danger—and a shovel. She peered through the grey-blue dusk for houses, sheds, anyplace that would likely have a tool they could use the bury a body in the sand. The buildings were rusty, most falling to pieces. One tiny shanty was missing a wall and a tent stood unsteadily on three legs, bits of rotted fabric still clinging to its top, fluttering like moths in the night.</p><p>She knew that tent.</p><p>She’d visited that tent every day for fifteen years.</p><p>The realization hit her with such certainly that she had to stop, gasping as everything fell into place like gears grinding to life. Suddenly the town looked different—but the same. She knew this place. She knew this place!</p><p>“This is Niima Outpost,” she blurted.</p><p>The Doctor skidded to a stop. “Niima Outp—you mean <em>the </em>Niima Outpost?”</p><p>She nodded quickly. “It all looks the same.” The words just tumbled out. “That was Unkar Plutt’s tent, right there, and that was—” An idea hit her and she sucked in a sharp breath. “We can find information here!” Without even glancing back, knowing the Doctor would follow, she wove through the tents and buildings, a layout she could navigate with her eyes closed. Gasping a little, she skidded to a stop in front of a tiny shack just outside of town, breathing hard.</p><p>“It’s the office of the Constable,” she said, shifting her mask again. “They kept records here.”</p><p>The rusty shack looked nearly the same. The door had fallen off its hinges years ago and lay half-buried in the sand, the metal nearly rusted away, and the walls were scored with holes from rust and weather. Testing each step carefully, she stepped over the door and inside. She scanned the room, forcing her eyes to adjust. There, in the back corner, a shadow that looked vaguely like a computer. She darted over like a cat leaping from floorboard to floorboard and felt for the keyboard.</p><p>The Doctor poked his head in, his breath catching a little.</p><p>Oh good, he’d caught up. “Doctor—light!”</p><p>A flashlight flew toward her from the doorway. One hand shot up and she caught it, barely turning to look. She flicked it on and swept the beam across the device before her.</p><p>Dust coated the device so heavily that it almost looked like it would feel soft. She drew her sleeve across the screen, leaving a clean swath across the middle of the black screen. Tucking the light under her arm, she hovered her fingers over the keyboard. The technology seemed familiar enough, she should be able to get in.</p><p>The Doctor stepped up beside her and pointed his sonic at the screen. The blue light at the end of the sonic flickered, and he shook it and tried again.</p><p>“Now that’s odd…” he muttered, and stuffed the sonic in his pocket as it gave a sad, dying whine. He dropped to a crouch beside the old computer, feeling around behind it, and a grin spread across his face. He wiggled his hand, and something clicked. “Ah! There we go.”</p><p>Rey dropped to a crouch beside him, pointing the flashlight into the gap between the computer and the wall. The beam glinted off disturbed dust, and a few cords lay flopped across the floor, dropped there by the Doctor a moment before. He lay nearly on his side, one hand disappearing into shadow, his face nearly squished between wall and computer. He squinted in the light and grunted.  </p><p>Rey huffed. She couldn’t deny he was probably more qualified with this universe’s technology, but she could’ve gotten the thing started up. She knew she could’ve. And obviously he could do it without the flashlight. She stepped back and got out of his way.</p><p>A series of clicks and rustling wires emanated from behind the computer, where the front half of the Doctor was hidden. Something snapped, the Doctor made a frustrated noise, and then with one last click and an <em>aha! </em>he popped up, grinning, his hair streaked with dust. “Bad connections in the back there, bit of corruption and rust, had to twiddle about with the batteries a bit. Nice batteries too, shame they’ve been sitting for so long. Think that should do it—”</p><p>A jarring startup noise screeched through the shack.</p><p>They both stumbled backward, and Rey dropped the flashlight.</p><p>The computer screen flickered to light, electric-bright in the darkness. Rey shook herself and leaned closer.</p><p>“Yes!” The Doctor laughed and reached around Rey, tapping the keyboard. She huffed and edged out of the way of his sudden genius-induced bout of ignoring her.</p><p>His fingers flew over the keyboard. “Come on…come on…give me something—yes! Look at that! A date!”</p><p>Rey peered around him. Black feathered across the screen where the display had broken, but she could see a number at the bottom corner. <em>04/16/13. </em></p><p>She frowned. “What date format is that?” None of those numbers looked like years. 4? 16? 13? “Do you think it’s the year this computer shut down?”</p><p>“Ooh, good thinking.” The Doctor tapped a few keys and the screen changed. The odd date disappeared, and the bottom corner of what looked like a document replaced it. The words were broken and scored with black. Rey squinted and swiped at the screen, as if she could swipe away the dead pixels like she swiped away the dust.</p><p>
  <em>Sabotage—poison. Do not—core. </em>
</p><p>She frowned. What horrible thing had happened here? She nudged the Doctor away and searched around on the keyboard for a moment, looking for some way to scroll.</p><p>The computer coughed.</p><p>More black shot across the corner and then engulfed the screen entirely, the afterimage glowing in the sudden darkness. Something whirred inside, and the acrid smell of burnt electronics drifted through the shack. Rey wrinkled her nose and stepped back.</p><p>“Oh, come <em>on!” </em>The Doctor gave an exasperated shrug. “And we were just getting somewhere!”</p><p>“Well…it was dying anyway.” Rey reached down and picked up the flashlight, and made her way across the rotting floor. “Come on…there’s got to be more here.”</p><p>The Doctor just stood there for a moment as if annoyed by his own inability to fix the decaying computer, then finally turned and followed her out into the night.</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter 6</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I feel like this chapter is basically me having fun with descriptions. Apparently I really like describing old ruins, lol. </p><p>Also. I think I forgot to say this earlier. But...the presence of breathing masks is actually not inspired by current events, as much as it may seem like it lol. I've had this idea in my head for a few years now, and I wrote the first draft of this in December 2019. I had a good laugh/angst over how oddly appropriate it turned out to be when I was writing the final draft. XD</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They buried the stranger on the outskirts of Niima Outpost.</p><p>Lugging two old pieces of metal back across the little settlement, they dug a deep hole and shoveled the shifting sand back over the body, planting one of the bits of siding into the sand as some sort of monument. Rey scratched <em>here lies an unknown stranger </em>into the metal and murmured the rites she’d heard someone speak, years ago, over an old scavenger found dead in the desert—it had been dusk when she’d come upon the old woman, kneeling, head bowed, speaking a soft voice, blessing the man’s soul to rest peacefully and his memory never to die.</p><p>She’d never found out who the woman was, or what had driven her to speak the words over an old desert scavenger no one had known. But she’d never forgotten it.</p><p>When the last bit of sand settled into place on the makeshift grave, leaving nothing but a bit of rusty metal to mark where the body had once lay, they set off into the desert again under the cloudy night sky.</p><p>They’d skimmed through the entire town and found nothing—no working technology, no other computers they could resurrect, no evidence of any more records, even physical ones. So they started off across the sand with no idea of where they were going.</p><p>The Doctor didn’t seem too daunted by that idea.</p><p>Though she’d lived on Jakku for as long as she could remember and made the trip back and forth from Niima Outpost every day, she couldn’t say for certain where they were. The stars were different here, and the endless sand tended to scramble one’s sense of direction. Without her speeder and its built-in positioning system, they could wander in the sand forever.</p><p>Still, she tried her best to lead them.</p><p>She remembered a settlement about a three hours’ walk west of Niima Outpost. She’d only been there once and it had been an accident, having somehow set off in the wrong direction and ending up on the edge of a small city. Perhaps, if this planet was as much of a mirror as it seemed, the settlement would be here too. With any luck, there’d be something there at least—some clue for how to get off this dead planet.</p><p>They must have walked for hours when the tower appeared on the horizon.</p><p>Rey’s feet dragged and the metal of the mask cut into her skin. She thought she felt blood smeared across her cheek, and every breath rasped. The Doctor didn’t seem so tired—he sauntered along almost curiously, hands in his pockets, looking around as if there was something to see. He was probably doing some kind of calculation in his head.</p><p>She wanted to ask what, but she couldn’t get the words out. Despite the absence of the scorching sun, she needed a drink.</p><p>She licked her lips and ignored it.</p><p>A thin line of black poked like a needle through the cloudy-grey air. At first she thought it was a trick of the clouds, but as they trudged closer they could see it was a tower of some sort, stretching all the way up into the top of the atmosphere, it seemed. She’d never seen the like on her Jakku.</p><p>Her feet were so numb they hurt by the time they reached the outskirts of the city.</p><p>It spread out before them in lumps and hills of shadow, run-down houses and collapsing shanties. Her foot hit stone, and she looked down to see an old road, eaten away by blowing sand, stretching away into the city.</p><p>The Doctor followed her glance then looked back up, grinning. “Now we’re getting somewhere!” He glanced over the city, his gaze lingering on the tower that seemed to go straight to the sky, and then started down the fragmented road.   </p><p>She followed, her steps halting. She just wanted to sit down.</p><p>The road branched off and ran between houses that stood like ghosts in the night. Some little shacks were cleaner, all four walls standing, rusty scrap metal slapped together recently, and some houses were old, built of what had once been high-quality materials but was now dirt and rot. An eerie silence fell about them.</p><p>Not even animals lived here.</p><p>They wound through the streets, the Doctor steadily leading them toward the huge tower which seemed to grow bigger and bigger the farther they went into the city. Its base had to be as big as at least ten of these houses, or more. They spoke little, only occasionally nodding at this building or that, or exchanging brief words to decide which path to take, both afraid to break the silence it seemed. The Doctor had that glint in his eye that meant he was filing away everything he saw for some grand revelation later.</p><p>As they made their way farther and farther into the sprawling city, shacks and shanties gave way to homes and public buildings, some with signs still readable. One read <em>City Hall, </em>the metal sign hanging by a screw from the collapsing doorway of a large three-story building that had once been grand. The streets branched out from it like a spiderweb, moonlight filtering through the clouds and glinting off bits of stones, half-buried in a layer of sand.</p><p>City Hall.</p><p>Perhaps they kept records there.</p><p>Rey glanced at the Doctor and a silent agreement passed between them. They started forward toward the yawning black hole of the doorway.</p><p>A crunch in the sand brought her head around, hand flying to her lightsaber. She slipped it out and held it lightly at her side, finger hovering over the button.</p><p>Around the corner of the building, a shadow moved.</p><p>The Doctor stepped to her side, staring curiously into the darkness.</p><p>Another flicker of shadow on sand, and Rey was running, chasing the sound of scrabbling feet and the form that was undeniably humanoid, not knowing or caring if the Doctor followed. They had wandered long enough, and here was a person. She was going to get answers out of them.</p><p>She skidded down an alley and around a corner just as a dark form slipped into the shadows. In two strides, she’d grabbed the person hard by the arm and whirled them to face her.</p><p>She looked into the eyes of a frightened girl.</p><p>She froze.</p><p>The girl, no older than 15, stared up at her, pale face half-covered by a mask much like Rey’s. “Don’t—please don’t—I can’t give you anything! I don’t have anything!” She wiggled and tried to back away. Rey kept a firm grip on her arm, though she felt a bit bad about it. This was the first person she’d seen here who could give her answers, and she wasn’t about to let her go skittering off like a frightened rabbit.</p><p>The girl struggled again, harder this time, fear darkening her wide eyes.</p><p>“Hey—hey. I’m not going to hurt you.” Rey realized her lightsaber still hung at her side, which probably looked much like a club in the dark. She quickly slipped it back into its holster. “I just want to know what’s going on here, okay? Can you talk to me? Please?”</p><p>“What are you doing here?” The girl sounded almost frantic. She jerked hard from Rey’s grip and backed away a step, eyes darting to the nearest alley. “No one’s supposed to—what do you want?”</p><p>“We only want to know how—” Rey began, but the girl had darted before she could finish. The Doctor skidded up behind her and she turned with a sigh.</p><p>“Let’s just go,” she said. “I probably wouldn’t have gotten anything out of her anyway. She was too scared.”</p><p>They wound back toward the city hall, which rose higher than most of the nearby buildings, a black hulk in the diluted moonlight. Neither of them spoke. The Doctor had that thinking face again, the one that meant he was probably feeding everything he’d seen and heard into some kind of computer in his head that would put it all together in different ways until everything made sense. They rounded the corner of the large building and the doorway gaped open again. Rey drew her lightsaber as they stepped inside.</p><p>Their footsteps echoed in the open space.</p><p>She flicked the button. Maybe she could use the weapon as a light.</p><p>It sputtered and a spark flew from the end. Then nothing.</p><p>She honestly didn’t know if it was because the thing was so faulty, or if it was the air here again. She needed to sit down and tinker with it sometime. Sometime when they weren’t busy solving mysteries or running from sea monsters.</p><p>A shimmer of moonlight ringed a door, glowing through windows in another small room, and Rey took off toward it. One of these rooms had to contain records, if they could get any of the computers started up. She stepped in and glanced around. At the far end, a wooden desk sagged on three legs, and the walls were lined with—</p><p>Books.</p><p>The walls were lined with books!</p><p>The Doctor skidded in after her and his eyes widened.</p><p>“Ooh, look at <em>this!</em>” He dashed forward, grinning wildly, and snatched the nearest book from the shelf. “Oh, this is brilliant! Physical records!”</p>
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<a name="section0008"><h2>8. Chapter 7</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>I have nothing to say? Someday I will just learn not to put a note. :P</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Physical records! Rey stepped over to the nearest shelf and ran a finger across the edges of the papers. She didn’t exactly know what she was searching for, and she couldn’t quite seem to read the words on the edges of the binders and folders that filled the shelf. She pulled the flashlight from her pocket and flipped it on.</p><p>It sputtered and went out.</p><p>She huffed. Right. Apparently, the air here corrupted anything that had a switch.  </p><p>She stuffed the flashlight back away and leaned closer to peer at the records. <em>Judicial records, y1-2. </em>She blinked. She could read it? When had she been able to read it?</p><p>It still unsettled her that she couldn’t quite feel the TARDIS translation circuit searching around in her head.</p><p>Well, that document probably wouldn’t do her any good.</p><p>“These are all just judicial records, laws and bylaws I think.” She swiped a hand across the row of binders and papers, and dust hovered in the air for a moment. Nothing remotely interesting here.</p><p>She crouched down to take a closer look at the shelves. The bottom shelf was empty, coated with a thick layer of dust, and the second shelf up was only half full, records piled haphazardly along it. Her gaze skipped to the end, to the last record, a binder that sat leaning against a half-rotted stack of papers. Would this be a record of the last thing that happened here? There didn’t seem to be a label on it, or it had long rotted away. She pulled it out and flipped it open.</p><p>The pages inside were scribbled with both handwritten notes and typed records. <em>Trade deal—Ambassador Callin</em>—</p><p>She shrugged and flipped through the rest of the pages before leaning it back up against the stack of papers. More politics.</p><p>If that was the last record, everything before it was likely politics too.</p><p>She stood and moved to examine the next wall of shelves.</p><p>“Ooh, look at <em>this.</em>” The Doctor’s exclamation echoed through the small chamber and she started. She’d nearly forgotten he was here.</p><p>He leaned against the old wood desk, glasses on, a string of papers nearly as long as he was tall draped through his hands, the bottom brushing the floor. With a curious frown, she stepped over.</p><p>“Seems like some sort of scientific record or schematic…” He ran his finger down the page, displacing more dust. “Terraform—process of—ooh, looks like somebody scribbled this in a fit of mad inspiration!” She could hear the grin in his voice. “More terraforming—air molecule—air molecule structure!”</p><p>She stood on her tiptoes and peeked over his shoulder. Air molecules and terraforming? That sounded interesting and potentially helpful. She couldn’t read a word of the formulas scribbled on the paper, but she thought she could probably decipher some of them if she had the chance to sit down and stare at them for a while.</p><p>He turned, his face nearly running into hers. She stepped back with a startled squeak.</p><p>He grinned. The paper fluttered to the ground. “Looks like they terraformed the planet, altered the atmosphere itself! This right here is some sort of core, probably pumping it out into the air…ooh, that explains a <em>lot. </em>I’m guessing something went wrong somewhere along the way, and…”</p><p>Rey bumped into the table and turned, her hand falling on a mess of papers, strewn there as if someone had dropped them there in a hurry. She glanced over them. <em>Trade deal, </em>typed nicely across the top of a rather formal-looking record. Beneath that, the corner of another yellowed paper peeked out, handwritten notes scribbled across it.</p><p>She nudged the trade deal record out of the way and carefully picked up the old scribbled page.</p><p>More formulas, faded and nearly unreadable in the dark. Some kind of schematic, a tangle of labeled parts. She couldn’t get her head around it here, but she folded it up and stuck it in her pocket all the same. Perhaps she could find some time to sit down and try to make some sense of it. It might contain answers.</p><p>Answers…</p><p>Maybe they’d already found them. Or at least, some of them.</p><p>She glanced back at the Doctor, who’d scrolled farther down the seemingly endless roll of paper and had a finger over more scribbled notes, frowning. <em>Refuge. </em>She blinked as the word popped out at her. There was something else there. <em>L…A…N…</em></p><p>“Refuge planet.” The words clicked in her head as soon as she said them. “They terraformed it to be a refuge planet. Something must have happened. If it was a refuge…”</p><p>“Oooh.” The Doctor’s eyes widened, and he turned to stare at her. “Ooh, that’s got to be it. Question is…” He frowned, and he seemed to stare past her, his eyes darkening. “Question is, what was it supposed to be a refuge <em>from</em>?”</p>
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<a name="section0009"><h2>9. Chapter 8</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>In which Rey is attacked by a staff-wielding scavenger girl and doesn't know how to handle it. xD</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>They didn’t find any more answers.</p><p>Not before Rey decided to wander off, at least.</p><p>Scanning through old court cases, laws, and judicial records was supremely uninteresting, and rather useless as well. She found no more mention of the core, no more mention of the refuge planet or what it was a refuge from, and nothing about what had happened to turn it into the ruin it was. So she set the last record down and slipped quietly out through the cavernous main hall and into the square that surrounded the city hall, lightsaber held tightly at her side.</p><p>She stopped, gazing out into the shadowy streets. This was Jakku.</p><p>It wasn’t so different, really.</p><p>Sand, ruins, scavengers. She tilted her head up. She couldn’t see the stars now, and the moonlight was dim, although bright enough to cast thin shadows. She had always liked picking out the constellations as a girl.</p><p>It seemed perpetually cloudy here.</p><p>She glanced back out into the city again, and started away from the sprawling building, retracing her steps from earlier. Here she was, wandering the streets of a city that shouldn’t exist.</p><p>Why had the TARDIS dumped them here, on some strange echo of her home?</p><p>Was Jakku even her home anymore?</p><p>She didn’t know if she wanted to go back.</p><p>She stopped to peer around the corner of a crumbling house. This was where she’d first seen the frightened girl. Maybe she could try to find her again and tell her she hadn’t meant to hurt her.</p><p>She followed the scuffed footprints, pools of shadow in the thin layer of windblown sand that coated what had once been streets. It was all a mess of running feet and she couldn’t tell where her prints ended and the girl’s began, but she could follow the trail well enough. Glancing up every few seconds to be certain she didn’t run into a wall or a ruffian, she kept her eyes on the shadowy trail that ran through the silent streets.</p><p>The empty stillness was so much more eerie here than it was in the ruins of the giant star destroyers or x-wings—here, where people should live. Where people had once lived.</p><p>Here—here was where the girl had fled and Rey had turned away. The scuffed footprints ran straight down an alley, around a corner, around another corner, and out into a clearing with a large building in the center.</p><p>It seemed the clearing had once been a yard—a fence jutted up into the night sky like a hundred sentinels holding their spears. The gate had long since disappeared, perhaps blown away by storms or picked apart by scavengers, and a patchy sidewalk ran to the door of a sprawling two-story house. Part of the roof had collapsed into a gaping hole, and triangles of broken glass glinted in the windows.</p><p>Rey glanced around and started down the sidewalk. She’d lost the girl’s trail now, but this was much more interesting. Someone important had lived here.</p><p>She’d only taken one step under the thin shadow of the fence when something small barreled out of the darkness and slammed into her. She hardly had time to draw her lightsaber before she was on the ground.</p><p>She stared up into the eyes of the frightened girl. And she was holding a staff, the tip pointed at her face.</p><p>Rey scooted backward and held up both hands. She’d never been on this side of the staff, and it was an oddly unsettling. “Hey—I’m not going to hurt you—”</p><p>“You need to leave.” Her voice wavered slightly, but she kept a firm grip on the staff, which seemed to be made of part of the old gate. “You—you need to leave. Now.”</p><p>Rey scooted back a little farther then pushed herself up to a crouch, then jumped up all the way. Her fingers closed around her lightsaber again, just in case. “And why’s that?”</p><p>The girl stepped forward, staff still pointed at Rey. “Just leave.”</p><p>“What is this place?” She kept a sharp eye on the girl, but she could tell she wasn’t going to strike unless she had to. And she wasn’t going to provoke her. She wasn’t about to hurt a frightened teenager who was trying her best to be strong. She just needed information, and she may have just stumbled on a gold mine of it.</p><p>“It’s—” The girl cut herself off, eyes wide.</p><p>“It’s what?”</p><p>The girl jabbed the staff at Rey. Rey’s hand shot forward and she snatched the end of the staff, pulling it toward her and sending the girl stumbling forward. Keeping a firm grip on the staff, she met the girl’s wide-eyed gaze.</p><p>“Please.” She tried to give the girl as kind a look as possible in the dark with her face half-covered in what must have been a rather forbidding mask. “I’m an offworlder. I need to get off this planet. And I’ll take you with me.” The words just came out, but she knew she meant them. The girl had been stuck here all her life, probably—she couldn’t just leave her behind.</p><p>The girl’s grip on her staff loosened and she stared at Rey, lips parting slightly. Her eyes widened. “Can you—can you take more than one?”</p><p>“We can take everyone who wants to come.” Carefully, Rey let go of the staff and stepped back a bit. “We just need help getting the ship started again.”</p><p>The girl slipped the staff into its holster across her back and turned. “Come with me,” she said in an almost-whisper, and turned and nearly ran across the yard toward the shadowy house.</p>
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<a name="section0010"><h2>10. Chapter 9</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ah yes, the obligatory info dump chapter. :P</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The house was as silent as the city outside. And darker.</p><p>The girl walked ahead of Rey, footsteps echoing as she led her down a hallway that seemed to run the length of the house, past closed doors with dusty doorknobs that hadn’t been touched in years. They turned a corner into a hallway that ended in a door. Beside the door, a few wires twisted out of a rusted square in the wallpaper. It was once a keypad, she supposed—an extra measure of security.</p><p>The girl drew a chain from beneath her ragged shirt. On it hung an old key.</p><p>The lock clicked. The door swung open to reveal a large room filled with shelves and tables.</p><p>Torches were screwed into the walls, their bases cobbled together of old metal parts. The flames burned a strange yellow-green, casting a sickly pall over the room. Half-empty shelves lined two walls and two long tables ran its length, one spread with yellowed papers filled with scribbles and the other with old parts and bits of equipment.</p><p>A woman stood at the end of one, grey-streaked dark hair pulled into a hasty braid, her face lined with age but her dark eyes sharp, her metal mask a bit smaller and considerably more comfortable-looking than Rey’s clunky one. She glanced up and one hand moved quickly to her side as the girl entered. Rey stayed in the shadows, letting the teenager speak with the woman she obviously knew.</p><p>“Grandmother…” The girl swallowed hard, and the words barely left her mask. “There was—there was a woman outside, and she says she’s an offworlder. She wants to know how to get off the planet…”</p><p>The woman’s brows drew together. “Offworlder? Are you certain?”</p><p>The girl nodded, eyes wide. “She said—”</p><p>The woman’s gaze snapped to Rey, and it seemed she could see straight through the shadows. “Come in,” she said sternly. “I want to see you.”</p><p>Rey stepped forward. She wasn’t sure if she liked the woman or if she was a bit scared of her.</p><p>“What’s your name, girl?”</p><p>She met the woman’s gaze. “I’m Rey.”</p><p>“Rey.” The woman narrowed her eyes and Rey could feel her scrutiny. She raised a hand and motioned toward herself with a sharp jerk. Almost automatically, Rey stepped forward.</p><p>“And where are you from, Rey?”</p><p>“I’m…” She hesitated. She couldn’t exactly say she was from Jakku. “Nowhere, really. I travel.”</p><p>The woman raised an eyebrow.</p><p>“Not alone.”</p><p>The eyebrow raised higher, and Rey had the unsettling feeling that the woman was staring straight into her thoughts.</p><p>“Well. It seems you’re a traveler no longer.” Her tone shifted to bitter. “Welcome to Jakku.”</p><p>Rey frowned. “But…”</p><p>“How did you land yourself here, then?” She gave Rey the same keen glance, as if she already knew the answer. “Crashed? Ship’s navigation systems failed?”</p><p>Rey stared at her. “It shut down and wouldn’t start. It’s an advanced ship though,” she added hastily. “So there’s got to be a way to get it started again. I just need to know—”</p><p>“Well, you’ve as much luck as I do with finding a solution to that.” She gestured around her. “Best place to start. This is Eliar’s lab.”</p><p>“Eliar?”</p><p>“Eliar was a hero!” a small voice popped up, and a little boy’s face popped around the table. A thick scar ran up his cheek above his mask, but his eyes were smiling.</p><p>“A hero?” Rey couldn’t help but smile at the boy’s enthusiasm. “What sort of hero?”</p><p>“He made Jakku!” His eyes crinkled up in a grin and he looked up at the woman as if begging her to tell Rey more. “Didn’t he, grandmother?”</p><p>“Well—yes.” The woman patted the boy on the shoulder with the tiniest hint of a smile. “Orry’s right. He designed the atmospheric terraforming mechanism, at least.” She glanced away, her face hidden in shadow. “He was a genius.”</p><p>“A genius?” Rey glanced around at the notes and parts strewn across the tables, the half-empty shelves. Could the record the Doctor had discovered have something to do with this Eliar? Terraforming…refuge planet…pieces flew around in her head and she couldn’t quite make sense of them. She was missing something. “What happened here, then?”</p><p>“You don’t know.” The woman sighed. “Not many do. Everyone knew about Celestia, no one knew about Jakku. We rather liked it that way.”</p><p><em>We…</em>as if she’d been there.</p><p>“Celestia?”</p><p>“Celestia. The perfect planet.” The woman spit out the words. “Everyone who lived there was perfect, and anybody who wasn’t had their bodies ejected into space.”</p><p>Rey stared at her. “That’s awful.”</p><p>“Exactly. So we got out.” She glanced at the girl, who still hovered in the doorway. “I was no older than Elladie here—my parents were part of the underground. I believe they met there.” Her voice softened, just slightly. “Father had a heart defect, mother was missing a hand. They had quite the center of innovation there, and a few geniuses who wanted out badly enough that they put their heads together and altered the atmosphere of an unlivable planet.”</p><p>“And that planet was Jakku.” The pieces clicked together in her head. “The refuge planet.”</p><p>The woman raised an eyebrow. “Clever one, you. Yes, it was a refuge, a new home on a planet no one dared visit. We built cities, towns, there were even trade deals.” Her voice hardened. “Celestia even offered one.”</p><p>Rey blinked. “They…”</p><p>The woman’s face had gone hard, her eyes shuttered as if the light had gone out of them. “It was thirteen years after we built the core. I still remember the date. We thought maybe they’d changed, learned to appreciate those who they wanted dead just years before. So in idealistic stupidity of humanity, we allowed them to send an ambassador to negotiate an alliance.” She nearly snapped the words. “Because no one thought they’d be so hateful as to send someone just to sabotage the core, right?”</p><p>“Wait—” <em>Trade deal. The final record. The unfinished trade deal. </em>The date on the computer…<em>04/16/13. 13 years. </em>“There’s a core? Was a core?”</p><p>“A few of them, yes. Main core here, linked with smaller cores scattered across the planet. Pumped out chemicals to make the atmosphere breathable. Shut down the main one, everything shuts down, the atmosphere reverts. Corrupts everything. Every bit of technology we’d developed and every city we’d built shut down in less than a day. Those who couldn’t scrabble together working filtration masks in time died too. And those who could…” One shoulder lifted slightly in a shrug.</p><p>“Wait—so the core’s still here? It just shut down? Doesn’t that mean it could be fixed? The Doctor can help!” The words just tumbled out. “That’s my friend—the Doctor. He can fix anything!”</p><p>The woman shook her head and turned away quickly, stifling the sudden hope that had sparked in her tired, dark eyes. “It’s impossible now. You realize I’ve searched this lab for a solution since I was twenty years old?” Her eyes grew fierce, the glint of a warrior. “And protected it. I’ll not have some so-called genius waltzing in and making off with Eliar’s records—”</p><p>“But he can do it! He’s saved whole worlds just by connecting the right wires!” It was true—she knew it. He could get them off this planet and save everyone else if he could only get a chance to get a good look at these records. “He’s puzzled his way out of the strangest mysteries and I’ve never seen him fail!” Well, things hadn’t always gone the way she’d expected, but he’d always figured it out. She couldn’t help grinning. “This’ll be easy for him—there’s even a whole room of records!”</p><p>The girl—Elladie—stared wide-eyed at Rey, then glanced to the woman. “Grandmother…surely he can at least try? No one’s ever tried before…”</p><p>The woman pulled her ragged overcoat a bit tighter around her shoulders and seemed to slump slightly. Suddenly she just seemed tired, and very, very old.</p><p>Rey felt herself soften. How hard had this woman fought for her life? How much anger and sadness did she hold over the life that had been stolen from her?  </p><p>Rey’s voice dropped to a pleading whisper. “He could fix everything. Just let him try?”</p>
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<a name="section0011"><h2>11. Chapter 10</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>FYI, I won't be posting again until next week...I'm doing a conference over the weekend and will be busy!</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Doctor dashed around the long table, scooping up a pile of records as he went, depositing them on the far side and sweeping a hand over them to spread them out in front of him. He glanced over the yellowed, half-decayed papers, shook his head with a frown, and turned to the old woman—Josine, she’d said when she introduced herself to the Doctor.</p><p>“Is that all you’ve got?” he said.</p><p>She nodded. “Yes.” Her tone was guarded, and she leaned forward, planted both hands on the table, and narrowed her eyes at the Doctor. “You are not to—”</p><p>He waved a hand. “Yes, yes, got it, not like you’ve said it a hundred times. I’m not here to steal the records, I’m here to decode them.” He glanced around the lab, then frowned at the papers again. “Chemicals, chemicals, there’s something I’m missing…” One hand went to his hair. “I’m missing something! All these…” After thoroughly frizzing his hair, he swept a hand across the records. “They’re not complete. There’s a few schematics…” He swept a swath of papers away from the rest, incomprehensible scribbles as far as Rey could tell, although if she’d had more light she might be able to see something that looked like a schematic.</p><p>The Doctor dashed around the end of the table and spread out another pile of papers. More scribbles. “And some formulas but they’re all missing bits, seems time and decay took a bit of a toll here…” He skidded across the floor down the side of the table and came to a stop in front of a small box that looked like a model. “And this—this has got to be a prototype of the core but it’s half gone by now.” He set it down with a thump and his gaze snapped to Josine.</p><p>She started and gripped the edge of the table. “What is it?”</p><p>“I need to see the core.” The Doctor turned, swept up a few records, and dashed to the door, shoving the paper into his coat as he went. Rey had to wonder how he fit everything into those inner pockets of his—and where she could get one.</p><p>He skidded to a stop at the door, turned back, snatched the model too, and took off again.</p><p>Josine turned a sharp gaze to Rey.</p><p>She shrugged. “You get used to him,” she said, and started after the Doctor.</p><p>00000</p><p>The tower loomed up before them, filling the sky and blocking their view of the houses and streets. Blackened and twisted metal stuck out like bits of a spiderweb from the tower’s sides. Had the core burned?</p><p>Rey tilted her head back, nearly stumbling over her own feet trying to see the top.</p><p>So close, all she could see was an expanse of black.</p><p>She pressed a hand against the cool metal. It jutted roughly against her palm, as if it had frozen in the middle of melting.</p><p>This was the core.</p><p>This was the thing that had kept the planet alive for 13 years.</p><p>She supposed it must be some sort of giant exhaust pipe, the inner workings pumping chemicals out into the atmosphere. Surely there must be an entrance or a door around here somewhere. She wished she’d thought to grab a lantern like Josine and Elladie had.</p><p>The Doctor dashed past her and disappeared into the darkness.</p><p>She blinked. Was that the door? She hadn’t seen it. With a huff, she followed him. There could be ruffians hiding in there, or the floor could collapse. Who knew how long it had been since anyone had stepped inside? She edged forward, listening for the Doctor’s echoing footsteps. There—the opening gaped like a black cave, darker than the night. Carefully, she slipped inside.</p><p>A little light filtered in, but hardly enough to see by. A ring of grey at the top of the tower indicated that it was open to the sky as she’d suspected. Shadowy lumps surrounded her, some square, some jutting out in odd shapes.</p><p>Something shifted behind her.</p><p>She whirled, one hand going to her saber.</p><p>Josine stood in the door way, a lantern in her hand, Elladie and Orry hovering behind her with their own lanterns. The sickly-green glow of the flames cast eerie shadows around the room.</p><p>The mass of shadow in the center popped out into what appeared to be some kind of giant round reactor, stretching up until she had to crane her neck to see the top, leaving a round walkway around the edge of the chamber. Rust and burned metal peeled away its outer layers, revealing glimpses of the inner workings, twisted pipes and wires. Smaller boxes and devices jutted out from the wall of the tower, rusty pipes connecting a few of them to the giant atmospheric converter in the center.</p><p>She couldn’t see the Doctor, but the shuffling of paper echoed through the space.</p><p>She turned to Elladie and held out a hand. “May I use your lantern?”</p><p>Elladie nodded, eyes wide, and handed the lantern to Rey. Josine stepped back a bit, her eyes hard above her mask.</p><p>Like she was desperately trying to force back the spark of hope that threatened to emerge like a single star breaking through the clouds.</p><p>Rey took the lantern, turned, and took off after the Doctor.</p><p>She nearly ran into him.</p><p>Well, she nearly ran into his legs, which stuck out of a gaping hole on the side of the converter. His long coat flopped out around his feet.</p><p>She skidded backward, biting her lip to stifle a giggle. “Doctor—”</p><p>“Somebody <em>burned </em>this thing!” He scooted himself farther into the workings, and Rey had the sudden, horrible image of the converter starting up and ripping him to pieces. “Oh, this is a <em>mess.</em>” He grumbled something she couldn’t hear, and something hard and dark flew out of the hole, landing with a clank at Rey’s feet. She reached down to pick it up. A useless bit of twisted metal. She ran her thumb over it absently.</p><p>A shadow shot around the edge of the reactor and she jerked toward it. Elladie poked her head into the light of the flame and a giggle escaped when she saw the Doctor’s feet.</p><p>Rey wished the girl could see her smile in return.</p><p>More metal clanked, and the Doctor’s feet disappeared entirely into the darkness with a <em>thump, </em>like he’d just fallen through the hole. Rey edged forward and peered inside, Elladie a step behind her.</p><p>The Doctor looked up from a crouch, hair a mess and streaked with black, face sharply shadowed in the greenish flame. “Oh, good. A lantern. I like lanterns, especially in places like this.” He jumped to his feet and held out a hand.</p><p>Rey considered protesting that she needed that, but she decided to just sigh and give it to him.</p><p>He stuck a hand in his coat and pulled out a wad of papers, spreading them out on the inner wall of the reactor in front of him and holding up the lantern to peer at them. Rey poked her head further into the workings. Rusted, melted pipes lined the walls and floor, all connecting into one giant pipe that ran up, up, up until it ended in a circle of grey-black sky.</p><p>The papers fluttered to the floor as the Doctor grinned and took off around the inner edge of the reactor, grinning almost wildly. “I think I’m getting something!”</p><p>Elladie, who stood on her tiptoes to peer in the opening, turned to Rey, her eyes sparkling. “Oh, he’s a bit mad, isn’t he?” Her voice had a dreamy cadence to it. “He’s just like I imagined the old scientists!”</p><p>“I suppose he is, rather.” Rey couldn’t help a smile.</p><p>Metal clanked, and a rumble reverberated through the floor.</p><p>Rey jumped back. “Doctor—” Did he have any idea what would happen if he got the thing started up? It could collapse in on him and bury him in the rubble! “Get out of there, now!”</p><p>The Doctor’s face emerged from the dark hole—how had he gotten back inside?—illuminated strangely by the green flame of the lantern. Oil and rust streaked down his cheek, his hair stuck out in all directions, and he was grinning. He vaulted out, landed on his feet, and shook himself.</p><p>“Something’s happening in there!” He glanced around as if looking for the others. “I did—something—just a bit of reconnecting wires and pipes, it’s still a bit of a mess but that can be fixed up better later, once we’re certain we’ve got things working—” He started around the edge of the reactor, scanning the metal, lantern held out before him. “Now, we just need to get it reconnected to the other cores around the planet, which <em>should—</em>ha!” He skidded to a stop and Rey and Elladie nearly ran into him. “Right here, now I just need to get it started up—”</p><p>Rey peered over his shoulder. An old screen that looked much like the computer screen from Niima Outpost was nestled into the burned metal. He reached for his sonic, huffed, and then just whipped out his glasses and started poking at the screen.</p><p>Electric light flashed through the chamber.</p><p>The Doctor jumped backward, eyebrows shooting up. “Well, that worked!” He grinned, and then his grin faded as soon as it had appeared.</p><p>Ringed around the converter, electric screens flashed the word <em>ERROR </em>in bright red letters.</p><p>“Doctor?” Josine peered around the converter, her expression tight and her dark eyes a bit wide. “What happened? What did you do?”</p><p>“No…nonono…” He stared at the screens, fingers tangled in his hair. “No…that can’t be…” And then he was dashing forward, fingers flying across the screen, twisting metal and wires and poking buttons. An alarm screeched through the chamber and he winced. Rey clenched the handle of her lantern and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to tune out the sound and the Doctor’s rambling.</p><p>The alarm stopped.</p><p>She squinted one eye open.</p><p>The Doctor was standing in front of the nearest screen, finger hovering over it, his eyes dark with realization.</p><p>“Doctor?” Josine’s voice edged on panic, but tightly controlled panic. “What’s wrong? Tell me!”</p><p>“The air’s wrong, it’s very wrong, that’s not good…”</p><p>“The air’s been wrong since we got here!” Rey stepped in front of the Doctor, batting his arm away from the screen. “Doctor…tell me. What’s going on?”</p><p>“It’s even more wrong. Less right. This isn’t just slightly wrong, this is <em>wrong </em>wrong.” He whirled, whipping his glasses off as he began to pace. “This core and every other one on the planet is pumping out poison now, and it’ll kill anybody in under a minute even with a mask. We need to get out of here, and now.”</p>
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<a name="section0012"><h2>12. Chapter 11</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*excited squealing at this chapter*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The Doctor raked his fingers through his hair and stared at the screen in horror. “I’m sure I connected everything right, this has got to be some kind of glitch in the—oh no. Oh, that’s bad. That’s very bad.”</p><p>“Doctor, what?” Josine took a step back and glanced toward the door. “Tell us. Now.”</p><p>“It’s starting to leak into the main chamber.” He put a hand over his mouth and closed his eyes for a moment, his breathing turning ragged. Was he still able to filter the air? Rey edged to the door, ready to grab him and shoved him out into the relative freshness of the air outside.</p><p>He let out a long breath. “Ah, that’s better. Just a bit of…well. Going to have a raging migraine later but that’s fine! Had worse. Everyone needs to get out of here, now. Go!” Instead of following his own instructions, he dashed off around the side of the converter, and Rey heard a clunk like some kind of metal part falling to the ground.</p><p>She glanced at the others.</p><p>The Doctor knew what he was doing, but something niggled at the back of her mind, something important that she couldn’t quite get a grasp on. Had he even payed attention to what records he’d grabbed when he went running out the lab? <em>Core…poison…trade deal…</em></p><p>She needed to see the lab again.</p><p>As soon as she was out the door, she took off running through the streets, following the map in her head. The old lab was only a few blocks from here—she turned a corner and skidded to a stop in front of the gate, the building looming dark behind it. She was here.</p><p>She dashed inside, her breath coming in short gasps as she skidded through the door. The filtration mask could hardly keep up, and she leaned against the doorway, sucking in a few deep breaths just to get air through the front of it.</p><p>She resisted the urge to rip it off and throw it aside.</p><p>Her head pounded and the air seemed to sting her eyes. The pressure-slice on her cheek throbbed, and as she reached a hand up to adjust it for what must’ve been the hundredth time, blood smeared against her fingers.</p><p>She forced back a wince and started deeper into the house. Down the long hallway, to the right, and there was the door to the lab with its long-gone keypad and peeling wallpaper around it. She tried the knob and let out a frustrated grunt.</p><p>Of course, they’d locked it. Josine was nothing if not cautious.</p><p>She stuck a hand in her pocket and searched around. Nothing. Why hadn’t she thought to stick any emergency tools in her pockets? She glanced around the hallway, and her gaze landed on the empty square beside the door—with a few wires sticking out.</p><p>In less than a minute, she’d ripped a wire out of the wall, crouched down, and wormed it into the lock. It clicked, and the door swung open. Sticking the wire in her pocket in case she needed it later, she stepped inside.</p><p>The greenish light of the torches was even eerier now that the lab was empty and silent. She stepped quietly over to the table and glanced over the papers. The Doctor had said he was sure he’d connected the right pipes, so could someone have taken the sabotage to a higher level than simply shutting down the atmospheric converters? Could they have altered the output so it would be sure to poison everyone on the planet?</p><p>
  <em>Sabotage—poison—do not—core. </em>
</p><p>Could that computer at Niima Outpost have been warning them all this time?</p><p>She shuffled through the papers on the table. Perhaps if she could find more records of the atmospheric formula, it could help the Doctor. It wasn’t like he’d taken time to search through every shelf. She stepped toward one of the shelves, running a finger along the papers and books. Most of them had academic-sounding titles like <em>Theories of Planetary Terraforming </em>and other such complex sciences. Whatever Eliar had done, she would need his exact records, not some kind of theory-book.</p><p>There, at the end of the shelf. A stack of papers that hadn’t been touched in years. She carefully lifted the first yellowed paper from the stack.</p><p>A rough sketch of desert plains, signed <em>Eliar Cantrov </em>in the bottom left corner.</p><p>It seemed he wasn’t just a scientist after all.</p><p>Curious, she lifted the next paper off the stack.</p><p>The face of a young man stared up at her, and the words <em>self-portrait </em>were scrawled across the top.</p><p>So this was Eliar.</p><p>She could almost feel his keen gaze staring through the years. Curls frizzed a bit around his face, and his lips turned up in a slight smile.</p><p>She stared at it, frowning slightly. He looked so familiar. So much like someone she’d seen before…</p><p>That face was the first thing she’d seen when she’d woken up in the sand.</p><p>The realization flashed through her so hard she dropped the portrait, the paper fluttering to the floor at her feet. The keen gaze…the curly hair…the smile…it was all the same, if older and more worn.</p><p>She needed to get back to the TARDIS—and soon.</p><p>Because if anyone could fix this, it would be the old man—the old man who had claimed he was just a scavenger.</p><p>The scientist, the hero, the man who had made Jakku.</p><p>Eliar.</p>
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<a name="section0013"><h2>13. Chapter 12</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>*excited writer squealing over this chapter*</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey turned and ran. Across the creaking floor, through the hallways, out into the courtyard. She had to find some way to get to the TARDIS. She skidded out onto the broken sidewalk and took in the yard in one quick glance. Did they have speeders or cars here? What had they had before the planet died? Was there anything she could fix up that would work well enough to get her across the desert? She couldn’t just start walking, that would likely do nothing more than kill her and everyone else on the planet too. She didn’t see the remains of any kind of locomotion device in the yard, but Eliar must have had one at some time. She took off around the building, panting a little now. The air stung her eyes and burned with each breath.</p><p>She skidded to a stop and tried to draw a deep breath.</p><p>She couldn’t quite get enough, and what she could stung like smoke.</p><p>Was the poisoned core working that quickly?</p><p>She leaned back against the crumbling wall of the mansion, one hand gripping the TARDIS key that hung beneath her shirt.</p><p>The TARDIS key.</p><p>Hadn’t the Doctor once said it could summon the TARDIS?</p><p>She jerked it out and unclasped the chain. It was just a small thing, laying in her palm. If the TARDIS was still dead, this wouldn’t work. But she had to try.</p><p>How did one use a key to summon a ship? Was there a button, some kind of hidden mechanism, a remote connection?</p><p>She turned it over in her fingers. The metal was cool against her skin, but something pulsed beneath it like a lifeline, a thin string of energy that stretched like a golden thread through the city, shooting across the desert and snapping into the core of the TARDIS.</p><p>She grabbed it and pulled.</p><p>She could almost feel it, and she was surprised to find she wasn’t holding some glowing string in her hands. A flicker tickled her mind, and then burst like white light in her vision—a presence, like an unstable star. The string grew until it was bigger than the key itself, bigger than her hand, leading like a golden tunnel into the TARDIS console. The familiar <em>vwoorp </em>pulsed through the room, and the lights popped back to life, one by one. She tugged harder, pulling the ship closer. The presence crystalized and she stared into the heart of the TARDIS, pulsing and ever-shifting like the inside of a flame. </p><p>She held a hand forward as if to touch it, and stepped through the golden tunnel.</p><p>The string snapped.</p><p>She stumbled forward and found herself on her knees, gasping and clutching the key. She stood outside Eliar’s lab in the dark. The air stung her eyes and the metal filtration mask weighed heavily on her face. She felt strangely empty, as if the place the TARDIS had occupied a moment before had suddenly turned to a dark void, ringing like the sudden absence of sound.</p><p>Had she done it? Had she summoned the TARDIS?</p><p>She squeezed her eyes shut and clenched the key until it bit into her palm. But it was just a little piece of metal now.</p><p>The TARDIS was dead again.</p><p>She drew in a ragged breath, the air burning her throat and making her feel almost sick. If it had worked, wouldn’t it have been here by now? She had been so close, and then the ship had just let go and retreated into nothing. Had the poisoned air already infiltrated its systems?</p><p>She closed her eyes and focused again.</p><p>Searched for barely-contained fury that was the TARDIS core.</p><p>A whisper brought her eyes open and she jumped to her feet and whirled. She froze, staring.</p><p>The TARDIS shimmered in the night air.</p><p>She was running before she could even think. She nearly slammed into the door as it solidified, scrambling for the handle.</p><p>The door seemed to open on its own and she nearly fell through. She caught herself on the doorframe and fell back half a step, lips parting in a half-uttered exclamation.</p><p>Eliar stood in the doorway.</p><p>One corner of his mouth twitched up on a slight smile.</p><p>“Quite the ship you’ve got here, miss,” he said.</p>
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<a name="section0014"><h2>14. Chapter 13</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Running feet pounded across the courtyard.</p><p>Rey whirled, her hand closing on the cool metal of her lightsaber. Odd, how quickly she’d become accustomed to using the traditional Jedi weapon, even if the blade didn’t always decide to work. She scanned the courtyard in a flash of a second. It could be anyone—</p><p>The Doctor skidded to a stop by the TARDIS.</p><p>He flailed and nearly ran into the ship. His coat was stained with oil, a black smear streaked across his cheek, and his hair stuck out like a haystack. “My TARDIS—” He grinned. “What happened? How’d you do it, Rey—”</p><p>He froze, staring at the old man who stood a few feet away from him. “You—he—” He motioned between himself and Rey, and then Rey and the old man.</p><p>“I’d say it was a bit of a team effort.” Eliar stepped out of the shadow of the TARDIS, raising an eyebrow at the Doctor. “Me and this ship of yours did a bit of working together.”</p><p>“Doctor…” Rey glanced at the old man, then the Doctor. She couldn’t help a smile. “Doctor…this is Eliar.”</p><p>“Eliar—you mean <em>the </em>Eliar?” The Doctor’s eyes widened and he gave the man an open-mouthed stare. After a moment he seemed to realize he should do something other than gape, and stuck out a hand.</p><p>The old man hesitated, eyes narrowed.</p><p>The Doctor grabbed his hand and gave it a hearty shake before he could say a word. “It’s an honor to meet you—sir. Very much an honor. See, I’ve got a bit of a problem here. This core of yours has me completely stumped. And you might want to write that down, because you’re never going to hear it from me again. It’s a great big complicated mess and it looks like somebody’s burned the thing. I think I may have—”</p><p>Eliar freed his hand from the Doctor’s grasp and took a stiff step backward, his eyes darkening. Rey tensed, all senses on high alert. Darkness seemed to hover around him like a buzzing cloud. Anger. Hopelessness. The kind of anger and hopelessness that made one a shell, a shadow with nothing to live for.</p><p>“…poison.” The Doctor’s voice cut through the air, and Rey started as she realized he was still rambling on, not even noticing the sudden shift in the man he was talking to. “Connected the wrong thing, most likely—should’ve grabbed more records on the way out. But you made the thing—you’ll know what to do. This is your old lab, yes?”</p><p>“My old…” He turned, his gaze snapping to the building whose shadow they stood under. “Yes. Yes it is.”</p><p>His voice was low and hard.</p><p>“Doctor…” Rey kept a firm grip on her lightsaber. Maybe Eliar wasn’t who they all thought he was. Maybe the years had worn him so thin he was nothing but a ghost of who he had been. Was he going to turn on them? Had he become a vengeful spirit, determined that no one would ever have the life that had been stolen from him?</p><p>A flurry of shadows shot around the TARDIS and Josine emerged, lantern in hand, the flame now a strange smear of blue that almost clashed with the blue of the ship. She stopped, and Elladie and Orry peeked out from behind her.</p><p>She took in the scene in one glance, and her hand lowered slightly, fingers tightening on the handle. “It cannot be…”</p><p>“Oh, but it is!” The Doctor turned with a grin. “Right here we have Eliar himself, the scientist, the maker of Jakku as we know it. And—”</p><p>“Eliar, sir?” Orry stepped out from behind his grandmother, looking at his feet, one hand toying with the fabric of his shirt. He looked up as if determined to meet the hero’s eyes, and one hand went to his mask as if he were ashamed. “Are you really him?”</p><p>“We thought he was dead…” Elladie’s voice was tinged with wonder, her hands clasped together and eyes shining.</p><p>He turned away.</p><p>“He is,” he snapped. “Eliar died the day he burned down the core.”</p>
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<a name="section0015"><h2>15. Chapter 14</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Ah yes, Rey's dark side. :P</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Rey was on him in an instant, slamming him back against the crumbling wall, lightsaber hilt against his neck. “How could you? That was your creation!” She pressed until the metal of the hilt bit into the metal box in his throat. “You will tell us how to fix this, and you will do it now.” Her voice was low, edged with steel. She shoved the hilt against his neck, making him nearly choke. “Tell me.”</p><p>“You don’t—” He tried to swallow. “You don’t—know a thing—about what happened—”</p><p>“Then tell me!” She pulled the hilt back but kept a hard grip on his arm, hard enough to hurt. She hoped. He had destroyed the very thing he’d created, and killed a planet of people. Why? How could anyone do something like that, and admit it so coldly? She should drive the blade through his heart right here and now.</p><p>He jerked his arm free and stepped away, shadows hiding his face. “I knew the ambassador hadn’t come to strike a deal. Knew it from the minute he arrived. Didn’t have time to tell the others. Didn’t have time to tell anyone. Saw him slinking for the core and grabbed the nearest weapon I could find. Found him in there tinkering with the settings—shot him dead.” There was a cold edge to his voice and Rey wondered suddenly if the ambassador was the only man Eliar had killed. “Not soon enough. Every core shut down and the air reverted within a day. Fouled up every bit of technology we’d developed here, everything dead.”</p><p>Rey shivered. <em>The dried-up body, laying in the sand. The bionic heart. </em>Air that could shut down ships, could shut down hearts and pacemakers just as easily.</p><p>The poor man hadn’t had a chance.</p><p>Eliar turned back, eyes blazing, fists clenched. “If I’d known it would catch on fire, I would’ve walked away then and there! If I’d known the whole thing would go up in a blaze of flame the minute I connected the right pipes, I wouldn’t have stood around and watched everything I’d worked for burn!” He marched forward, past the Doctor, stopping at the TARDIS to turn back. “I hope you know there’s nothing you can do, Doctor. All you lot, you’ve been sitting here hoping for something that’s never going to happen. I tried. I tried and I failed.” He bit out the words, glancing around at the stunned group before him. “Just get in this man’s ship and get off this cursed planet that never should’ve existed.”</p><p>“No—no, you can’t do this!” The Doctor stepped in front of him, forcing him a half-step backward. “I got the thing working, it’s just combined a bit wrong. We’ve got the two of us—two geniuses in one place, oh, this could be brilliant! You and I could just take a look at the settings, and—”</p><p>Eliar looked away. “Genius? Oh, I stopped being <em>Eliar, the genius </em>the day I burned that core to a crisp.” He snorted. “Eliar. Hero of the common people. As if. You say the air’s poisoned now? Good. No one’ll ever visit this planet again. Take your wonderful little ship and get everyone you can off this godforsaken place.”</p><p>Something flashed in the Doctor’s eyes. Something like a memory. He leveled a steady gaze at the man. “You’re a genius, <em>sir.</em>” He put an emphasis on the word that was almost hard. “You rewrote the chemistry of an entire planet and saved hundreds—no, thousands of humans who had committed no crime other than that of being inferior in the eyes of some evil tyrant. You can’t ever erase that legacy, and you know it.”    </p><p>“You will <em>not </em>walk away.” Josine’s voice echoed across the courtyard, clear and hard as glass. “You will <em>not </em>leave the rest of us to mop up your mess. I have scoured your lab for sixty years looking for a solution. You have <em>no right—”</em></p><p>Rey’s hand clenched on her lightsaber. He couldn’t do this. She wouldn’t <em>let </em>him do this. Her finger went to the button, and she pressed it.</p><p>Nothing happened.</p><p>She growled. Of course. Of course the blasted thing didn’t work. Well, she didn’t need it. She’d used this hilt as a blunt-force weapon before. She marched forward, the metal digging into her palm. He <em>would </em>help them, and he would do it now, before the poison killed anymore scavengers like him. And if he didn’t…</p><p>“You’re not Eliar!” The little voice piped through the courtyard and Orry peeked around from behind his mother, his eyes sad and scared and shining with tears. “Eliar wouldn’t let people die!” He clenched his little fists and stared up at the man. “Eliar was a hero, wasn’t he grandmother?” He turned to Josine, arms crossed determinedly. “I think he’s lying.” His voice wavered a bit, and a tear slipped down his cheek and hit his mask.</p><p>The old man stared at him, eyebrows drawn down in a frown. “Who’s this?”</p><p>“I’m not going to tell you, because you’re not Eliar.” The little boy managed a determined glare before another tear spilled over. “Grandmother told me not to tell strangers my name.”</p><p>Eliar tilted his head to the side, his expression almost seeming to soften. “I’m not so much a stranger as you might think,” he said gruffly. “More of a stranger to myself than anything. Go on, get in. You deserve to live somewhere other than the planet I ruined.”</p><p>Orry scrubbed a hand across his face, smearing tears and dirt everywhere. “Don’t be scared.” His hand went to the back of his mask, and he unhooked it. “Do you need a mask? You don’t have a mask.”</p><p>Eliar stared at him. “No…no I think I’m quite alright without one for now, little one.” He turned away and closed his eyes for a moment.</p><p>Rey hardly dared breathe. Carefully, she slipped her lightsaber into its holster. Her hand fell against her pocket, and paper crinkled.</p><p>She froze.</p><p>She’d grabbed that piece of paper from the city hall. Something like an idea flickered in her mind, and, not stopping to develop it, she drew it slowly from her pocket and held it forward.</p><p>“Sir,” she said. “Do you know this?”</p><p>He just stared at her hand for a moment, eyes narrowed, then snatched the paper. “What’s this, then?” His voice was gruff. “Some old scribbles—”</p><p>He froze, staring at it. “My old scribbles.” His fingers clenched around the paper. “I suppose they kept it as a record of the old hero.” His gaze flashed down the paper. “Ah, that would be the formula for the combination of…” His voice trailed off, and his hand fell to his side, the paper drifting to the ground. He stared at it for a moment and Rey could see the memories working across his face. His fists clenched.</p><p>Perhaps he remembered the day he’d written those notes.</p><p>Orry stared at him, another tear threatening to spill over. “Sir? Are you sure you’re alright?” He grabbed his grandmother’s shirt and if he wasn’t wearing the breathing mask, Rey was certain his lip would be trembling. “I’m sorry I shouted at you and called you a liar. It wasn’t very nice. But you’ll help us, won’t you?”</p><p>The old man turned. His gaze flicked between the paper at his feet and the little boy, staring up at him with hopeful eyes.</p><p>He stumped toward the TARDIS.</p><p>“How do you fly this thing?” he snapped. “I need to get to the core.”</p>
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<a name="section0016"><h2>16. Chapter 15</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Why am I so mean to Rey? :P</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The TARDIS settled in place by the core and the Doctor threw open the door and dashed out. Eliar followed a bit more slowly, settling the filtration mask on his face.</p><p>“Let’s hope this works,” he muttered, before following the Doctor into the shadow of the huge tower.</p><p>Rey hovered in the doorway. She’d been the only one to reach the TARDIS before it disappeared—dashing forward and nearly falling through the doors. The Doctor wasn’t going without her, not if she had anything to do with it. They’d need someone manning the TARDIS to get out of here and quick if this went wrong. She wasn’t going to let the Doctor or Eliar die.</p><p>She’d offered her mask, but the Doctor had found another from the depths of the TARDIS, tinkered with it for a moment, and plopped it over Eliar’s face. They could breathe the poisoned air well enough—for a little while. Rey wasn’t sure how long they had.</p><p>She gripped the doorway, staying inside the shields. Eliar had explained that once he’d got the shields back online, the TARDIS had ejected the bad air from its systems and started back up. He’d done something with the ship, and neither she or the Doctor knew quite what. Apparently he’d tinkered a bit.</p><p>She wasn’t sure how she felt about that.</p><p>A fog seemed to hover about the doorway of the giant tower—the mist of poison that was even now jetting out the top and settling around the city. She shifted the breathing mask. Maybe here in the shielded TARDIS she could take it off, just for a moment—</p><p>The tower began to fade.</p><p>She froze. The TARDIS was taking off. Why was the TARDIS taking off? No! She dashed to the console and scanned it. She’d watched the Doctor fly it enough, surely she could take control. Time-space-coordinates, shields—</p><p>It was resisting her.</p><p>She could feel it tugging back as she tried to flip levers and lock onto the location. It just stubbornly kept going, despite her feeble little attempts to override it. She growled and gripped the edge of the console, staring up at the core.</p><p>Wait.</p><p>She could <em>feel </em>it.</p><p>She could feel the tug of the pulsing vortex in its center like the heat of a distant flame. She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to lock onto it like she had earlier, to step into the core and take control.</p><p>The TARDIS settled into place with a slight thump, and everything was still.</p><p>And the connection snapped.</p><p>She let out a huff. It had been there, just for a moment. Had it worked? Had she brought the ship back down?</p><p>She ran to the doors and threw them open.</p><p>She looked out on the collapsing remains of Eliar’s lab.</p><p>What? Why was she here, of all places? Why had—wait. Wait. Had the Doctor dropped her here? Had he <em>sent her back?</em></p><p>Of course. Of course he’d gone and sent her back. He was the type to do it, too. Just stepped out into the poisoned air and told the TARDIS to go back with her inside. Probably to protect her, too. Why did he still think she needed protection? They’d traveled together enough that he should know better. She gripped the doorway, glaring into the darkness. Well, this time she would force the TARDIS to do what she wanted. She was <em>not </em>about to let the Doctor jump into danger without her.</p><p>A shadow flickered against a blue flame, and Josine rushed over, the children just behind her. Elladie stopped a few feet away, staring wide-eyed at her.</p><p>“Miss Rey?” She looked almost frightened. “You look like you’re going to kill someone.”</p><p>She turned away. “I’m going back,” she shot over her shoulder. “You can come if you like.” She marched to the console, trying to remember everything she’d seen the Doctor do. She could do this. Well, she could figure it out if she had a few minutes.</p><p>A hand set down on her arm. She whirled, ready to knock the person back.</p><p>Josine leveled her with a steady, knowing gaze.</p><p>She didn’t like the way the woman seemed to stare into her soul. She looked away quickly. “Well?” she snapped. “Are you coming?”</p><p>“Yes,” Josine said evenly—irritatingly evenly. Right now, Rey wasn’t too fond of the way she insisted on being the voice of reason. “Otherwise you’ll kill yourself.”</p><p>She was probably right, but quite frankly she didn’t care. The Doctor had abandoned her, and she was going to kill him after she’d pulled him out of the poison and saved his life.</p><p>She circled the console, not even trying to find the psychic connection anymore. If it was going to be so intermittent, she needed to be able to just fly the thing. Coordinates set—check. Both space and time. Engines—vortex thrusters—core engaged. She had it. The light began to move up and down the console, and the familiar <em>vwoorp </em>noise filled the room.</p><p>The floor shifted, and then shifted again, taking off and settling in less than a minute. Rey was at the door hardly a second after it had stopped, brushing past Josine and the children and peering out. Good. She’d landed them at the core, just like she’d intended. The others could come or not—she was going to help the Doctor. If Eliar’s TARDIS-enhanced mask could do it, surely this one could for a few minutes.</p><p>She focused on taking shallow breaths as she started for the doorway. The flickering light of a lantern and the echo of voices emanated from inside—what was happening? She needed to know if it was working, or if she needed to be prepared to get them all off the planet. She slipped inside and took in the room in one glance, not caring that the air burned her eyes or stung with every breath.</p><p>Eliar stood by the core, lit by the sickly light of a lantern, one finger hovering over an electric screen. He shouted something, and the sound of the Doctor’s running feet echoed through the open space.</p><p>They hadn’t seen her yet, and they seemed to be doing something. Good. Maybe it would work—</p><p>She wasn’t sure what made her glance back out the door. Maybe a sense, a flicker of movement on the edge of her vision, the patter of small feet cutting through the fog. But there he was, a tiny figure running through the mist.</p><p>Oh, no. No, no, no.</p><p>In a flash of a moment, she forgot about how the Doctor had left her behind, she forgot about her anger, she forgot everything but the need to get the little boy to safety. He was too young to be out here, surely his grandmother had <em>told </em>him to stay in the TARDIS—</p><p>He stumbled to his knees, nearly falling against her just as she reached him. His hand went to his mask, and it seemed he was trying to say something. A tear dripped down his cheek, catching in the thick scar and running down to his mask.</p><p>She had her mask off in an instant, pressing it over his. He coughed, but seemed to draw in a deeper breath. Good, now she just needed to get him back to the…back…</p><p>Where had she been going again?</p><p>Her head pounded too loudly to finish the thought.</p><p>Orry’s face went negative, afterimages of the metal mask flashing in her vision. She tried to draw a breath but the air didn’t quite go down. She stumbled and the ground rushed up to meet her. For a moment, she flew.</p><p>A shout echoed behind her. Pain exploded in her head. Red and black flashed in her eyes and her lunges burned red-hot. She tried to push herself up—pain lanced across her palms as they pressed into the rocky ground, every sense supercharged. She could hear the hum of the air around her, feel the blood running through her veins, see the lights of the TARDIS light blinding points of fire.</p><p>Arms closed around her. And then nothing.</p>
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<a name="section0017"><h2>17. Chapter 16</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Last chapter! And yes, the ending is a reference to a former story and another OC that was introduced there.</p></blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Right, so if we disconnect this one and reconnect this one it should get the right things going and hopefully flush out the poison, then we need to get it pumping out the top again—” The Doctor froze, his sonic pointed directly at the rusted, burned core. The odd little device had likely gone out the minute they landed on this cursed planet, but Eliar supposed the Doctor used it much like a professor used a pointer.</p><p>Eliar turned to follow the Doctor’s gaze, but he was running before Eliar could move. He dashed out the door, sonic clattering to the floor, shouting something—a name.</p><p>
  <em>Rey!</em>
</p><p>What had happened? Hadn’t the Doctor sent his ship back with her in it? Eliar realized he was stepping on papers, which crunched beneath his feet as he followed the Doctor a bit more slowly. He was getting much too old for this. The air seemed to waver as he peered out the door. A streak of tan dropped to a crouch beside a prone figure—a girl? Rey?</p><p>She’d collapsed. And she wasn’t wearing a mask.</p><p>He gripped the metal of the doorway, jaw clenching. The Doctor’s friend—or lover, or whatever she was to him—would be dead in under a minute if he didn’t get her to safety. His breath rasped past the newfangled mask and the metal embedded in his throat. She would be dead—and so would everyone else, if they didn’t end this quickly.</p><p>The main chamber of the core was still leaking poison, although they’d managed to shut it down enough that it had stopped spewing out the top. The air inside was soaked with it, and it stung his eyes and burned his throat. The Doctor’s filtration mask was shutting down, and the filter in his throat wouldn’t last much longer.</p><p>Perhaps it was his fate—or his punishment—to die on the planet he’d failed to save all those years ago. Perhaps it was best this way.</p><p>No one else would die here.</p><p>Not if he had anything to do with it.</p><p>If he had to walk into the middle of that core and connect that last pipe, by God, no one else would die.</p><p>Fix the last connection, get the programming right, and start the system up again.</p><p>That was all.</p><p>He turned and strode back into the cloud of poison.</p><p>000000</p><p>Sparkles floated in a canvas of velvet-black. Noises crackled around Rey, like static on a radio. She sucked in a gasping breath, and everything snapped into focus so quickly it hurt. People talking. TARDIS lights. The painfully bright core.</p><p>Running feet pattered across the console room, and something nudged her. She turned to see a small round face with a single black eye looking at her, head tilted quizzically to the side.</p><p>BB8!</p><p>The Doctor’s face popped over BB8’s and Rey pushed herself up with another gasping breath. Her head still pounded, but she was breathing, and the air felt fresh and clean with every breath. She remembered taking her mask off—her hand went to her face. No mask. She nudged her fingers up her cheek and felt blood, and something stung. She pulled away quickly.</p><p>She was breathing.</p><p>And BB8 was working.</p><p>Wait—did that mean—</p><p>“Yes!” The Doctor’s almost-shout made her start, and she stared at him, eyes wide. Had he read her mind? “Yes, we did it! Well, Eliar finished it all up, almost killed himself but he’s here now. I think he’s out there arguing with Josine about who’s going to be the new governor.” He smirked. “Figured I’d give them a moment to work things out. Everyone’s alive.”</p><p>He slipped an arm around her, and she huffed but let him help her up. The minute she was on her feet, she wiggled away from him and ran to the door.</p><p>The core shot into the sky before them, a sky tinged with the orange of morning. Already, a bit of blue peeked through the clouds where steam billowed from the top of the core, a wobble in the still-dark air.</p><p>Josine and Eliar stood locked in a rather intense discussion, although it hardly seemed an argument. Perhaps they were discussing what would happen now.</p><p>Josine shook her head and turned, and her eyes met Rey’s. She turned back to Eliar, said something in a low voice, and hurried over. Elladie and Orry trailed behind her, the whole scene looking a bit like a mother bird with a line of chicks.</p><p>She bowed her head in a nod. “Today is the first day that I have breathed fresh air in forty years.” She glanced between Rey and the Doctor. “Thanks to you and your friend.”</p><p>Rey glanced away. She hadn’t done much, not really.</p><p>A tug at her hand pulled her back, and she looked down to see Orry looking up at her, large clear eyes in a scarred face no longer half-hidden by a mask. Before she could say a word, he threw his arms around her and buried his face in her shirt.</p><p>She just stood there, lips parted in a barely-uttered exclamation. Then she bent down and hugged him back, squeezing her eyes shut against unexpected tears.</p><p>An insistent beeping echoed out of the TARDIS and Rey pulled back a little. Suddenly shy, the little boy pulled away and ran back to his grandmother. Rey smiled and raised a hand in a little wave before looking to the TARDIS.  </p><p>Through the doors, she could see the Doctor standing at the viewscreen, eyebrows raised, BB8 at his feet. She glanced back at the others and ran inside.</p><p>“Doctor?”</p><p>“I’m getting a message!” With a flick of a hand, he swiveled the screen toward her.</p><p>Commander Iria of the Planet of Spires looked out at her, long blonde hair pulled back in an impeccable bun, one eyebrow raised at the sudden shift of scene.</p><p>Over the viewscreen, the Doctor grinned.</p><p>“She says it’s rather urgent,” he said. </p><hr/><p>The End</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Notes for the Chapter:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
          <p>Thank you for following me through this whole thing! I'm working on the next story, which is also the end of the series. I'm about halfway through it currently, so I'll be posting it in maybe...the next month?</p>
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